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 CHICAGO (AP) - Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. sweetened its offer Friday for the Chicago Board of Trade's parent company in an attempt to end a bidding war, bumping the bid up 16 percent to nearly $10 billion and pledging a hefty stock buyback if the deal goes through.
CBOT Holdings Inc., which operates the Board of Trade, swiftly deemed the bid superior to the unsolicited one by IntercontinentalExchange Holdings Inc., even though ICE's offer is still higher — $10.5 billion versus $9.9 billion, based on Friday's closing stock prices. It recommended that shareholders accept the revised bid from the Merc.
The counteroffer had been anticipated ever since Atlanta-based ICE launched its surprise effort in March, disrupting the plans announced five months earlier for the Mercantile Exchange to buy CBOT for about $8 billion.
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